Ha, it's finally making the rounds on the news sites. I saw it on OSNews linking too The Register first and now it's all over the place.
Being a PalmOS user since the Newton line died at Apple's hands and now in tansition too Maemo, my response was this:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=102&threadID=244646&messageID=2362270After mucking about with the VM, I have some further points (written as if Access is actually going to read my humble little post):
- Please bridge the GarnetVM?s Bluetooth to the Nokia?s Bluetooth radio. The GarnetVM?s networking is bridged to the Nokia?s wifi radio so the 10% of network aware Palm apps work In my specific case, 75% of my Palm apps are Bluetooth related. Specifically, Phone Dialer and SMS have no Nokia equivalent so I carry my Palm as a address book with dialer and texting platform. (typing on a phone bad sucks but write your txt on the Palm and it?s all good).
- Add a true full screen mode. Currently, the VM displays the PalmOS desktop vertically if ?full screen mode? is selected in the VM?s settings. If the setting is unchecked, the PalmOS desktop is displayed 90 degrees clockwise (a la Palm?s screen pivot style). Vertically, the PalmOS desktop takes up the full height of the screen so it?s all set there. At 90 degrees clockwise, it should expand to fill the screen better while keeping the aspect ration. Ideally, there should be separate settings to display the PalmOS desktop pivoted.
- Add multiple application selection to the VM?s install button. I spent the other night adding in my collection of PalmOS apps one at a time. The install button would be far better if the open dialog allowed for selection of multiple .prc and related data files. This may be a maemo limitation in the open dialog but a smart programmer should be able to work around that.
- Add multiple application configuration. Currently, the user must select each individual installed Palm app and edit it?s specific configuration settings. If the user uses the same configuration for multiple apps (example; Device Model) being able to make that change too all apps at once would be a benefit.
So far, those are the primary things I've noticed from using it. It's a beta 1 and a free offering so no one should be complaining too loudly.
I was also very happy to discover that it uses the original Graphitti input characters. I learned that last night after trying to write a "k" in the Tungsten* input character set about five times before trying the older graphitti characters. (They always where much more accurate for input.)
